Tron 2.0 / Tron 2.0: Killer App (PC, Xbox) (2003, 2004)
Developer: Monolith

Review by Faididi and Co.

Programs first were having sex; now they're using steroids

Story: Excellent

Monolith's Tron 2.0 is a sequel to the 1982 sci-fi movie, Tron. (It is otherwise unconnected to the 2010 film sequel, Tron: Legacy, which is for the better.) Two decades have passed since the most unusual of buddy adventures, when Kevin the rebellious programmer was transported into a computer network's digital world and teamed up with the heroic security program named Tron, the two ultimately defeating the villainous Master Control Program and bringing down a vile, plagiarizing executive.

Today, the new hero is Jet, the human son of Tron's creator and a hot-shot videogame programmer. When evil corporate dudes take over his dad's company and try to exploit the digitization process in order to conquer the globe's data networks, Jet winds up getting zapped into the company's computer systems, where he makes like an angrier Tron and starts kicking massive amounts of virtual ass.

For a story that should be heavily grounded in digital technology, the writing has a few rough corners. Jet strangely forgets his own programming skills when he walks around asking like a layman for explanations about the devices he finds. Instead of scary artificial intelligences, the main enemies here consist entirely of corporate scumbags (a corrupt security chief, a wicked doctor, a greedy technician, and, worst of all, a lawyer). A certain character plays such an underdeveloped role that one wonders why Jet gets so horny over her. Never mind why the sexual distinction between male and female is still being applied to computer programs.

Good thing then that nobody cares about any of that, because the real fun lies in the story's ever-awesome portrayal of the digital world, the playful visualizations, and the humorous wordplay behind the gameplay terminology. Cool touches abound throughout Jet's adventure, be they the memorable partings with various allies, the command prompt inputs that our hero can read to learn of activity from the people outside, or the visual gag in the eventual appearance of "Tron." The way the story periodically jumps back to the human world to reveal the bad guys' ongoing reactions to Jet's rampage also does a fantastic job of driving the suspense.

Gameplay: Above Average

Tron 2.0 is a first person shooter that can be loosely described as Valve's Half-Life but with a Tron setting and character upgrades. Jet can enhance his attributes and acquire special abilities as he travels through the 10 chapter-like missions. The light cycles from the movie are featured here in a minigame-like mode, too. The focus rests primarily on the FPS action, however, so the light cycle scenes may be skipped for those who don't want to bother with them.

At first, the Tron universe seems an unlikely fit with the FPS genre, due to obvious limitations placed on the firearms. The weapons are indeed the weakest part of Tron 2.0, because they all draw from a single energy supply, which is also used in purchasing keys and abilities from locked storage containers. If this isn't bad enough, equipping the more advanced weapons requires using precious ability slots that could instead hold other power-ups. Thus, Jet usually winds up relying on the same two or so weapons to kill every enemy in the game, ignoring the rest of the guns. Furthermore, while the iconic throwing disc is the only weapon that can be used for free, it has problems returning to Jet if it gets tossed behind a wall. That's crappy news, because he can't switch weapons until the stupid disc is back in his hands. (The multi-disc sequencer upgrade that allows up to three discs to be thrown at a time, similar to the setup in Discs of Tron, alleviates this problem but doesn't become available until much later in the missions.)

Fortunately, the rest of Tron 2.0 works out great, and the depth to which all things digital computing are infused into the game is amazing. For starters, there's the colorful terminology. Jet's experience level is called his build version (with every hundred experience points resulting in a level-up for his core stats), the negative status afflictions are called corruption (which can be fixed by using a free anti-virus ability), and a disintegration field is called a system-format (uh oh).

Better still, the tech themes make possible the fun level design. When Jet attempts to hide within a data packet in transit, he finds himself aboard a rail-like transport, complete with boxes of data stacked in piles. A mainframe that he manages to overclock results in the walls around him glowing red-hot and threatening to melt down. Most humorous of all is the loading progress bar, which literally takes the form of a nightclub where programs hang around waiting in queue, frustrating their impatient users (lol). The expanses of rooms and corridors may feel overstretched at times, given that they don't need to adhere to real-world architecture, but they're not so bad when, unlike other FPSs, Tron 2.0 has the absolutely perfect excuse to warp Jet from place to place via data ports.

Perhaps the best part of the gameplay is the upgrade system, where the special abilities take the form of performance-enhancing subroutines. Cleverly reflecting an aspect of actual coding practices, optimizing a subroutine not only boosts its effect but also slims down the amount of memory it requires, therefore enabling more subroutines to be running (equipped) at once. Jet is regularly encouraged to play around with his subroutines, too, because the missions occur across various computer systems that offer different amounts of memory (for example, a paltry PDA versus a mighty internet server). This rich interplay between the strengthening of subroutines and the environments' dynamic impacts on their arrangement renders this engaging upgrade system unlike anything else before.

Controls: Above Average

The controls are generally responsive, but they can use a little more polishing. As mentioned earlier, the weapons can't be switched if a thrown disc hasn't returned yet. In the light cycle mode, there is no way to stop the camera from pivoting every single time the vehicle turns, even if you just want the camera to maintain the same angle of view.

Graphics: Above Average

The movie's unique visual style is reproduced here in full blast, blessing Tron 2.0 with the coolest, super-glowiest graphics ever. Too bad the bright lighting fails to provide enough contrast for the damage direction indicators. That means the flying enemy drones can keep shooting Jet in the face while he can't see where they're positioned. On a less serious note, why do all the female programs have enormous boobs, and why do all the male programs look so buff? Hardcore Tron fans might argue that this is a reference to the early concept art for the movie, but something is wrong when Jet looks like a linebacker. On steroids.

Audio: Excellent

Except for the odd silence of the flying drones' laser attacks, the sound effects totally rock, from the thunderous blasts of the hero's weapons to the amusing whoosh of a successfully charged bit. Merely walking around in the digital world makes Jet the noisiest game character ever since the hulking cyborg from Core's Project Eden. The music, which incorporates parts of the movie's score, can't fit the game any better, and the tunes in the later scenes really make our hero feel like an unstoppable force. Jet himself may sound like a nerdy wiener (despite the 'roids), but the voice acting enjoys the return of Bruce Boxleitner, who reprises his role as Alan; and Cindy Morgan, who plays as Yori's successor and the most fascinating character in the story.

Overall: Above Average

Despite having weaponry that can be better, and despite having lighting effects that can be too extreme for their own good, Tron 2.0 is an enjoyable FPS with a story that is gold to computer lovers. No other game makes such an impressive showing of a digital technology-inspired world, from its level design's hilarious puns to its particularly creative take on character upgrades. Fans of the movie will definitely find much to love here.

Port: Above Average (Xbox)

Ported by Climax, the Xbox version is called Tron 2.0: Killer App. It faithfully includes the story mode while updating the multiplayer deathmatch mode to feature 4-Player splitscreen support, as well as system link and Xbox Live support. Alas, this port doesn't improve on the damage direction indicators, and its controls are a little worse. Although the sensitivity levels and the orientations of the analog stick controls can be adjusted, the unintuitive button scheme can't be changed. The menu interface is a mess, making the subscreens, the weapon panels, and the item-acquirement lists a pain to navigate. (You can't even reach the load menu directly from the pause menu.) Unless you really hate dealing with system compatibility issues, sticking with the PC version and its cleaner controls is a better bet.